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rior was slow, and the difficulties increased, owing to the determined resistance of Juarez {q. v.) and all the liberal chiefs of the country, who, although fighting independently, joined in their resistance to the empire and in recognition of the Republican

government of Juarez, and were encouraged by dissatisfaction in the United States with European encroachments on the American continent. In , after the close of the civil war in the United States, the attitude of the latter government be- came more determined, but when, owing to the advance of the French Gen. Briancourt to Chihua- hua, Juarez was forced to retire to Paso del Norte, Maximilian, deceived by the French bulletins, de- clared that the Republican government had aban- doned the country, and therefore under pressure from Gen. Bazaine issued the decree of 3 Oct., which was afterward fatal to him, declaring all Mexicans that should be taken in arms against the empire, bandits, and subject to immediate execution with- out trial. Henceforth the strife became more san- guinary. The executions that followed, and sev- eral cruelties that were committed by the Austro- Belgian forces, caused a protest from the Republi- can minister at Washington, Seiior Romero, and the objections of the United States to foreign armed intervention on American soil became so urgent that at last Napoleon, after vainly trying to obtain from the U. S. government a recogni- tion of the Mexican empire conditioned on his withdrawal of the troops, was forced by public opinion in France to evacuate Mexico. In March, , Napoleon's envoy. Baron Saillard, arrived in Cuernavaca, where the emperor had gone for a short visit to announce that the first French troops were to leave Mexico in November of that year. Maximilian then sent Gen. Almonte to France, and, after he had vainly tried to change Napoleon's resolution, the Empress Charlotte left in July for Europe, where, in interviews with the French em- peror and the pope, she pleaded in vain to change the current of events. In Rome her mind gave way in consequence of her mental anxiety for the fate of her husband. Maximilian tried unsuccess- fully to propitiate the French by appointing Frenchmen to the portfolios of war and the treas- ury, but they were refused permission from France to enter the ministry, and then, as a last resource, he abandoned the Liberal party, and threw himself again into the arms of his former partisans, the Conservatives. But even this remedy could not save the tottering empire before the increasing success of the Republican arms, and in October Gen. Castelnau arrived to communicate to Maxi- milian the firm resolve of Napoleon to evacuate Mexico, and advised him to return to Europe. The emperor had gone to Orizalm for his health, and there he assembled on 25 Nov. his ministers and council of state, who were nearly all opposed to his abdication. On 5 Dec. he issued a decree call- ing a national congress, to be freely elected by both belligerent parties, promising to abide by its decision. Such an assembly could not be brought together, owing to the opposition of the great ma- jority of the Republicans, who by this time had occupied nearly the whole of the country as it was abandoned by the retiring French troops. After the emperor's return to the capital, an as- sembly of only 35 notables met on 14 Jan., 1867, "and with but 10 dissenting votes decided against Maximilian's abdication. But the impe- rial exchequer was empty, and when on 1 Feb. the last French troops left Mexico, including even those Frenchmen that had enlisted in the imperial army, the position of affairs became critical. In the capital, with more adequate means of resist- ance, Maximilian might have held out for a long time, but, after refusing a renewed invitation from Bazaine to depart with him, the emperor resolved to stand or fall with his friends in Queretaro, and on 13 Feb., with a single corps, accompanied by Gen. Marquez. he left the capital for that city, which speedily was surrounded and besieged by the Republican forces. After many partial en- counters, several gallant but unavailing sorties, and seventy-two days of close siege, his army hav- ing suffered greatly and being reduced to the last extremities by the total exhaustion of provisions, the emperor decided, after consultation with his council of war, to break through the enemy's lines on 15 May. But in the preceding night the Re- publican troops gained access to the strong post of La Cruz, through the treachery, as is generally asserted, of the commander of Maximilian's body- guard. Col. Miguel Lopez, and surprised the city. After a short resistance by Miramon, the imperial army surrendered the city, and Maximilian, Mejia, and Miramon were made prisoners. For nearly a month Maximilian was kept in prison in the con- vents of La Cruz and Capuchinas, and after vain efforts of the European governments in his favor, and a fruitless attempt to obtain the intervention of the United States with Juarez in his behalf, a court-martial met on 13 June. Notwithstanding the able defence of his attorneys Gen. Mariano Riva Palacio, Martinez de la Torre, and Eulalio Ortega, Maximilian was condemned to death next day, and the attempt of his defenders to obtain his pardon failed in view of his fatal decree of 3 Oct., 1865. After his condemnation, it is said that he was offered facilities to escape from prison and reach the coast, but that he refused to avail him- self of them unless liis companions Miramon and Mejia should be saved at the same time. On the morning of the 19th, on the Cerro de las Cam- panas, near Queretaro, the three prisoners were shot. The emperor's body was carried to the Church of the Capuchinas, embalmed, taken to the capital, and deposited in the Church of San An- dres. In August the Austrian frigate " Elisabeth " arrived in Vera Cruz, and Vice-AdmiralTegethoff, by order of the emperor of Austria, claimed the remains of the unfortunate prince. After many delays they were delivered in November, and con- veyed to Europe in the same frigate that had car- ried the imperial pair to Mexico in 1864. On 18 Jan., 1868, they were interred in the imperial vault in Vienna. During August and September, 1887, an attempt was made by some partisan journals of Mexico to remove, after the twenty years' silence of Col. Lopez, the stain of traitor from his name by means of supposed autograph letters of Maxi-